
Pub signs started as a bush or a bunch of
grapes put up over the door. Then in 1393
Richard II passed a law requiring all pubs
to show a sign, so that the official
regulators could test the ales, and the
result was a flurry of White Harts – the
royal badge. In fact, the signs of our oldest
pubs tended to fall into three categories:
heraldic, religious and monarchic. Of
heraldic signs the Red Lion (John of
Gaunt) and the Blue Boar (Richard III) are
early examples. The Bear and Ragged
Staff was the emblem of the Earl of
Warwick, and it was also used to tell
people that there would be bear-baiting there. (The Chequer Board or
Chequers told you to expect gambling. The Bird in Hand, although its
origin is in falconry, had become shorthand for ‘don’t expect credit here’
by the 19th Century.)
The second theme was religious, reflecting the concerns of those early
Inns. So we find the Seven Stars (stars round the Virgin Mary’s halo), the
Bull (papal ‘bull’ or proclamation) and the Catherine Wheel (St Catherine
and the wheel she was martyred on). With the suppression of the
monasteries under Henry VIII, the signs were reimagined without their
religious meaning, so now we have the Seven Stars as the Plough, the
Bull as a beast, and the Catherine Wheel modified to the Cat and Wheel.
Thirdly there were royal signs, of which the most popular king is still Henry
VIII and queen is Elizabeth I. After Victoria a law was passed forbidding
the representation of living monarchs on pub signs. It’s not hard to guess
what might have prompted this! It is still extant, and continues to be
flouted, as anyone will know who has walked down Little Clarendon
Street and looked up at the Duke (not long ago the Duke of Cambridge,
and still showing the present incumbent). Angela flashed up a modern
example of a Rose and Crown sign showing Kate Middleton as the Rose
and Prince William wearing the crown at their wedding, and she showed
several examples of signs mocking Prince Charles in a friendly way.
More recent signs show a rich and wide variety of subjects, from famous
people to transport, to historic events, to sporting achievements, to the
natural world. We still love puns (the Flower Pot refers to the flowing ale
– think of the Flowing Well at Sunningwell), and she showed us a